Milana Stojadinović Milić (1962, Serbia), MA, composer and associate professor at the Music Theory Department of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade.
Major works: Mimikrija (Mimicry); Aurora borealis for symphony orchestra; Duo simbolico for piano and symphony orchestra; Kaleidoskop (Kaleidoscope), wind quintet; Melodija (Melody), string quartet; Suze (Tears), cycle of vocal miniatures; Isečak međuvremena (A Fragment of Meantime) for soprano, alto flute / flute, and piano; Eol (Aeolus), violoncello trio; Neoromantico 2 for clarinet, violin, and piano; Dream, for flute and piano; Tango per tre for violin, violoncello, and piano; Tango u polju tulipana (Tango in a Field of Tulips) for oboe, violin, and accordion; Desankin diptih – Plava pesma i Predosećanje (Desanka’s diptych – The Blue Poem and Premonition) for mezzo-soprano and string quartet; Kako su Medved i Maša postali prijatelji (How Masha and the Bear became Friends) for piano and accordion… Compositions for young pianists, pupils of music schools: Tajni agent sa Timpaniusa (The Secret Agent from Timpanius), I bi svetlost (And There was Light), Šopenesa (Chopinesse), Prvozvani (The First-called), Rok-džez rol etida (Rock-jazz-roll Etude)… Works by Stojadinović Milić have been premièred and performed many times at concerts, festivals, radio and television shows in Serbia and abroad, released on CDs, including the international project Savremena muzika Balkana (Contemporary Music of the Balkans), included in Antologija srpske pesme (Anthology of Serbian Song) and two volumes of Solo pesme sa Pozivnog kompozitorskog konkursa „Obzorja na Tisi – Dani Josifa Marinkovića“ (Solo Songs from the “Mornings on the Tisa – Josif Marinković Days” Call for Compositions).
Stojadinović Milić has won a number of awards and authored several publicly presented and published works in theory. A biographical entry on her appears in seven editions of the lexicon Who is Who in Classical Music, published by Europa Publications (UK).

Molitva (Prayer) for women’s choir was composed in 2016, as a setting of a poem by Momčilo Nastasijević. I borrowed his verses from a book by composer Dušan Radić, U senci Hermesa – zbornik vekovnih maštarija (In the Shadow of Hermes – A Collection of Age-old Daydreams). This was the fifth time that I found inspiration in Radić’s interpretations of poetry by other authors (and the forms he gave it) and now I understand how decisive his “readings” have been on my creative oeuvre.
Prayer
To drown in thy blue,
O Lord, I thirst.
And that my joy, o gift-giver,
blush your expanses.
And I pray to thee,
take me, clear-eyed,
across your crags and chasms,
so that thy heavens may be reflected in me.
To grow silent, blessed, in Thee,
and from me, silent,
may rock speak to the mountain
and the mountain to flowers.